Invisible Roulette

A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

Invisible roulette invites to place your bet on the table. The aim is to reflect on how you to take decisions through the game. Indeed, in every level the reference system will change. How does your decisional processes change? Invisible roulette aims to make players think of how complex reference systems could affect gamblers' illusion of control arising through the gameplay.

Magic Interaction intends to provide a design perspective on gambling. According to previous researches, in gambling players are immerse in intense perceptive experiences that depend on game features: rules, mechanics, graphic features, sounds and rhythms of actions contribute to cognitive errors and illusions that could end up in pathological behaviors. Gamblers perceive games of chance more alluring of what they actually are, because of their apparent complex gameplay.

I decided to realize some counter-games of chance that subverting traditional design features of gambling, explore the relationship between game design and emerging play experiences. The objective is to reveal the real essence of gambling: chance controls the results of the game, not player's interactions.

As example, the main gameplay aspect of the roulette game - the act to decide on which numbers place a bet – is criticized in INVISIBLE ROULETTE. The experimental effort of this prototype relies in his attempt to use the gameplay to criticize the gameplay itself to unveil the weakness of players' choices in affecting the final outcome of the game.

Even if apparently simple, the choices made by gamblers are the result of complex decisional processes inspired by game reference systems. The presence of numbers and colours affects players' perception of control. Favourite numbers or statistical data very often influence the bets. How does the interplay between gamblers' decisional processes – which end up in placing a bet - change if we hack the reference systems without altering the winning probability (the result is always guided by chance)? How is it possible to design gameplay experiences that make gamblers more aware of their illusions? Invisible Roulette explores and investigates such questions.